The trend is taking off on a national level, with big-name companies and executives catering to the Muslim market in America’s increasingly diverse population. The Associated Press’ Rachel Zoll reported:

While corporations have long catered to Muslim communities in Europe, businesses have only tentatively started to follow suit in the U.S. — and they are doing so at a time of intensified anti-Muslim feeling that companies worry could hurt them, too. American Muslims seeking more acknowledgment in the marketplace argue that businesses have more to gain than lose by reaching out to the community.

The worldwide market for Islamically permitted goods, called halal, has grown to more than half a billion dollars annually. Ritually slaughtered meat is a mainstay, but the halal industry is much broader, including foods and seasoning that omit alcohol, pork products and other forbidden ingredients, along with cosmetics, finance and clothing.

The AP story points out efforts by Wal-Mart to work with halal chicken processors, Best Buy to acknowledge Muslim holidays in advertisements and Whole Foods to provide all-natural halal products in markets where the Muslim population is high. The second annual American Muslim Consumer Conference saw enrollment double to more than 400 attendees, including Muslim business owners like the head of Saffron Road frozen halal meals and the founder of Edible Arrangements.

The hope is that Americans will support educated Muslim entrepreneurship and recognize the quality of halal products, just as some non-Jews favor kosher foods like Hebrew National hot dogs.